The State of “Differently Abled” People in the Western Cape, South Africa

This project is a look into whether the current legislation and resources provided allow for the equality that is promised in the new constitution. I looked at legislation and community NGOs in order to establish what is being done in order to assure that people with disabilities have equal access to resources, including education, transportation, employment, healthcare, public awareness, and human resource development. In order to investigate these questions I worked with the Cape Mental Health Society and the Fountain House; I conducted interviews and observations looking at the community facilities of care. These community groups also provided insight into the translation of legislation to the people it is intended to serve. After I finished my research, I concluded that South Africa has progressive legislation when it comes to the actual laws being signed. However, these laws are ineffective and poorly implemented, thus creating a system of exclusion. As a result of poor implementation, resources are not being allocated to people with disabilities, thus people with disabilities are operating in a system that promotes exclusion. Additionally, the Healthcare 2010 policy is one that is supposed to increase the quality of care for people, based on community service, but people with disabilities are simply being removed from the hospitals and overloading into under funded community NGOs. Finally, I conclude that a complete shift, in terms of philosophy on disability, is needed in order to truly accomplish equality for people with disabilities

The Healing Power of Active Imagination on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Wellbeing: A Mixed-method Exploratory Study

Despite many treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recovery is often moderate at best. and symptoms often persist after treatment. This mixed-method study explored whether an active imagination protocol could serve as an effective low-cost, drug-free intervention for complex PTSD or persisting symptoms after a traumatic event. Seventeen participants were assessed using the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), Multiscale Dissociation Inventory (MDI), and the Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing (PWB) before and after a four-session, one-to-one active imagination intervention. On average, all quantitative scores significantly improved from baseline, and every subscale improved. For the sample average, PTSD symptoms decreased by 32%, dissociation decreased by 29%, and wellbeing increased by 15%. A thematic analysis of follow-up interviews produced five themes: general reflections on the active imagination process, general benefits, effect on PTSD symptoms, attitudes about different parts of active imagination, and states of mind during active imagination. The major qualitative findings are of positive change with occasional radical improvement and personal transformation

Ultrafast emulation of retinal neuronal circuits with artificial VCSEL optical neurons

Biological retinal neuronal circuits are emulated using a system of connected 1550 nm Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL)-neurons. Spiking and non-spiking neuronal responses are reproduced at ultrafast speed (>7 orders of magnitude faster than neurons) with prospects for novel brain-inspired computing platforms and Artificial Intelligence

Neuromorphic photonics with laser dynamics

We report on the activation, inhibition and propagation of controllable neuron-like spiking signals at sub-nanosecond speeds (>7 orders of magnitude faster than neurons) in artificial optical neurons based upon Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers. These results offer great prospects for future ultrafast photon-enabled neuromorphic computing platforms

ZCCHC8 IS REQUIRED FOR THE DEGRADATION OF PERVASIVE TRANSCRIPTS ORIGINATING FROM MULTIPLE GENOMIC REGULATORY REGIONS

Antibodies are among the most frequently used tools in biomedical research, but they are often subject to many pitfalls including cross-reactivity, production lot-to-lot variability, and loss of activity. Despite the multiple laboratory applications for which antibodies are used, there are few standardized scientific guidelines for validation of antibody usage. Much of the blame for the recent reproducibility crisis in biomedical research has been placed on the failure of antibodies to perform consistently over time. In chapter one, we report a case study of an anti-BTBD7 antibody that displays cross- reactivity, extreme lot-to-lot variability, and loss of activity across multiple applications. We determined the major cross-reacting protein of interest to be ZCCHC8 and provide a general framework for determining the identity of cross-reacting proteins. We also surveyed a panel of anti-ZCCHC8 antibodies that show an array of non-specificity and in some instances apparent cross-reactivity with BTBD7. A mechanistic study of ZCCHC8 and its role in regulating non-coding RNA is detailed in chapter two. The vast majority of mammalian genomes are transcribed as non-coding RNA in what is referred to as “pervasive transcription.” Recent studies have uncovered various families of non-coding RNA transcribed upstream of transcription start sites. In particular, highly unstable promoter upstream transcripts known as PROMPTs have been shown to be targeted for exosomal degradation by the nuclear exosome targeting complex (NEXT) consisting of the RNA helicase MTR4, the zinc- knuckle scaffold ZCCHC8, and the RNA binding protein RBM7. Here, we report that in addition to its known RNA substrates, ZCCHC8 and/or the NEXT complex are responsible for the targeted degradation of pervasive transcripts produced at CTCF binding sites, open chromatin regions, promoters, promoter flanking regions, and transcription factor binding sites. Additionally, we report that a significant number of RIKEN cDNAs and predicted genes display the hallmarks of PROMPTs and are also substrates for ZCCHC8 and/or NEXT complex regulation suggesting these are unlikely to be functional genes. Our results suggest that ZCCHC8 and/or the NEXT complex may play a larger role in the global regulation of pervasive transcription than previously reported

A force and thermal sensing skin for robots in human environments

Working together, heated and unheated temperature sensors can recognize contact with different materials and contact with the human body. As such, distributing these sensors across a robot’s body could be beneficial for operation in human environments. We present a stretchable fabric-based skin with force and thermal sensors that is suitable for covering areas of a robot’s body, including curved surfaces. It also adds a layer of compliance that conforms to manipulated objects, improving thermal sensing. Our design addresses thermal sensing challenges, such as the time to heat the sensors, the efficiency of sensing, and the distribution of sensors across the skin. It incorporates small self-heated temperature sensors on the surface of the skin that directly make contact with objects, improving the sensors’ response times. Our approach seeks to fully cover the robot’s body with large force sensing taxels, but treats temperature sensors as small, point-like sensors sparsely distributed across the skin. We present a mathematical model to help predict how many of these point-like temperature sensors should be used in order to increase the likelihood of them making contact with an object. To evaluate our design, we conducted tests in which a robot arm used a cylindrical end effector covered with skin to slide objects and press on objects made from four different materials. After assessing the safety of our design, we also had the robot make contact with the forearms and clothed shoulders of 10 human participants. With 2.0 s of contact, the actively-heated temperature sensors enabled binary classification accuracy over 90% for the majority of material pairs. The system could more rapidly distinguish between materials with large differences in their thermal effusivities (e.g., 90% accuracy for pine wood vs. aluminum with 0.5 s of contact). For discrimination between humans vs. the four materials, the skin’s force and thermal sensing modalities achieved 93% classification accuracy with 0.5 s of contact. Overall, our results suggest that our skin design could enable robots to recognize contact with distinct task-relevant materials and humans while performing manipulation tasks in human environments.M.S

The Effects of Threats to Meaning on Attitudes Toward Evolution

Humans have an innate need to make sense of the world and give it meaning (Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006), and do so by creating and defending cultural worldviews (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszcynski, 2004). Threats to meaning cause existential anxiety, and to protect ourselves from this existential fear, we reject, eliminate, or avoid threats to our cultural worldviews (Schmeichel & Martens, 2005). In addition, following threats to meaning, we compensate by showing aggression towards those who are dissimilar (Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989). Science and religion are two prominent cultural worldviews that can provide meaning. We predict that following a meaning threat, participants high in religious fundamentalism would report a less favorable attitude toward evolution than those low in religious fundamentalism. Sixty introductory self-identified religious students at Hope College participated in this study. Participants first completed a measure of religious fundamentalism. They were then randomly assigned to complete a writing task based on condition: meaning challenge (writing about life’s lack of meaning), meaning affirmation (writing about how they find meaning in life), or neutral (writing about their plans for next week). Finally, they read an essay that presented mixed evidence about evolution and rated the essay and their views on evolution. Data were analyzed using an ANOVA examining the interaction between religious fundamentalism and priming condition on attitudes toward evolution. We found a significant interaction showing that religious fundamentalists were more critical of evolution when their meaning was challenged. Given that religious fundamentalists have been found to hold negative attitudes toward evolution (Poling & Evans, 2004), meaning threats may enhance these negative attitudes as a way of regaining meaning. These results highlight that individuals bolster different sources of meaning that are aligned with their values

Are within-person Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) ratings of breathlessness 'on average' valid in advanced disease for patients and for patients' informal carers?

INTRODUCTION: The Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) is frequently used to assess patient-reported breathlessness in both a research and clinical context. A subgroup of patients report average breathlessness as worse than their worst breathlessness in the last 24 hours (paradoxical average). The Peak/End rule describes how the most extreme and current breathlessness influence reported average. This study seeks to highlight the existence of a subpopulation who give 'paradoxical averages using the NRS, to characterise this group and to investigate the explanatory relevance of the 'Peak/End' rule. METHODS: Data were collected within mixed method face-to-face interviews for three studies: the Living with Breathlessness Study and the two subprotocols of the Breathlessness Intervention Service phase III randomised controlled trial. Key variables from the three datasets were pooled (n=561), and cases where participants reported a paradoxical average (n=45) were identified. These were compared with non-cases and interview transcripts interrogated. NRS ratings of average breathlessness were assessed for fit to Peak/End rule. RESULTS: Patients in the paradoxical average group had higher Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire physical domain scores on average p=0.042). Peak/End rule analysis showed high positive correlation (Spearman's rho=0.756, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The NRS requires further standardisation with reporting of question order and construction of scale used to enable informed interpretation. The application of the Peak/End rule demonstrates fallibility of NRS-Average as a construct as it is affected by current breathlessness. Measurement of breathlessness is important for both clinical management and research, but standardisation and transparency are required for meaningful results